The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08
alte_, or formerly _haut_, because soldiers then stand upright and hold
their spears erect.]
28. Then the Alban army, that had been spectators of the fight, was
marched down into the plains. Mettus congratulates Tullus on his defeat
of the enemy; Tullus on his part addresses Mettus with great civility.
He orders the Albans to unite their camp with the Romans, which he
prayed might prove beneficial to both; and prepares a sacrifice of
purification for the next day. As soon as it was light, all things being
in readiness, according to custom, he commands both armies to be
summoned to an assembly. The heralds,[45] beginning at the outside,
summoned the Albans first. They, struck[46] too with the novelty of the
thing, in order to hear the Roman king harangue, crowded next to him.
The Roman legions, under arms, by concert surrounded them; a charge had
been given to the centurions to execute their orders without delay. Then
Tullus begins as follows: "Romans, if ever before at any other time in
any war there was (an occasion) on which you should return thanks, first
to the immortal gods, next to your own valour, that occasion was
yesterday's battle. For the contest was not more with enemies than with
the treachery and perfidy of allies, a contest which is more serious and
more dangerous. For that a false opinion may not influence you, the
Albans retired to the mountains without my orders, nor was that my
command, but a stratagem and the pretence of a command: that so your
attention might not be drawn away from the fight, you being kept in
ignorance that you were deserted, and that terror and dismay might be
struck into the enemy, conceiving themselves to be surrounded on the
rear. Nor does that guilt, which I now state, extend to all the Albans.
They followed their leader; as you too would have done, if I had wished
my army to make a move to any other point from thence. Mettus there is
the leader of that march, the same Mettus is the contriver of this war;
Mettus is the violator of the treaty between Rome and Alba. Let another
hereafter attempt the like conduct, unless I now make of him a signal
example to mankind." The centurions in arms stand round Mettus, and the
king proceeds with the rest as he had commenced: "It is my intention,
and may it prove fortunate, auspicious, and happy to the Roman people,
to myself, and to you, O Albans, to transplant all the inhabitants of
Alba to Rome: to grant your people the rights of citizenship, and to
admit your nobles into the rank of senators: to make one city, one
republic; that as the Alban state was formerly divided from one people
into two, so it may now return into one." On hearing this the Alban
youth, unarmed, surrounded by armed men, however divided in their
sentiments, yet restrained by the common apprehension, continue silent.
Then Tullus proceeded: "If, Mettus Fuffetius, you were capable of
learning fidelity, and how to observe treaties, that lesson would have
been taught you by me, while still alive. Now, since your disposition is
incurable, do you at least by your punishment teach mankind to consider
those things sacred which have been violated by you. As therefore a
little while since you kept your mind divided between the interest of
Fidenæ and of Rome, so shall you now surrender your body to be torn
asunder in different directions." Upon this, two chariots drawn by four
horses being brought, he ties Mettus extended at full length to their
carriages: then the horses were driven on in different directions,
carrying off the mangled body on each carriage, where the limbs had been
fastened by the cords. All turned away their eyes from so shocking a
spectacle. That was the first and last instance of a punishment among
the Romans regardless of the laws of humanity. In other cases we may
boast that no nation whatever adopted milder forms of punishment.
[Footnote 45: _Præcones ab extremo_. At the farther part of the Roman
camp, where it joined that of the Albans.]
[Footnote 46: As well as by the orders issued by Tullus.]
29. During these occurrences the cavalry had been despatched onward to
Alba to remove the multitude to Rome. The legions were next led thither
to demolish the city. When they entered the gates, there was not indeed
that tumult nor panic, such as usually takes place with captured cities
when the gates being burst open, or the walls levelled by the ram, or
the citadel taken by assault, the shouts of the enemy and rush of armed
men through the city throws every thing into confusion by fire and
sword: but gloomy silence and speechless sorrow so absorbed the minds of
all, that, through fear, forgetting what they should leave behind, what
they should take with them, all concert failing them, and frequently
making inquiries of each other, they now stood at their thresholds, now
wandering about they strayed through their houses, doomed to see them
for that the last time. But as soon as the shouts of the horsemen
commanding them to depart now urged them on, the crashing of the
dwellings which were being demolished, was now heard in the remotest
parts of the city, and the dust, rising in distant places, had filled
every quarter as with a cloud spread over them; hastily snatching up
whatever each of them could, whilst they went forth leaving behind them
their guardian deity and household gods, and the homes in which each had
been born and brought up, a continued train of emigrants soon filled the
ways, and the sight of others through mutual commiseration renewed their
tears, and piteous cries too were heard, of the women more especially,
when they passed by their revered temples now beset with armed men, and
left their gods as it were in captivity. After the Albans had evacuated
the town, the Roman soldiery level all the public and private edifices
indiscriminately to the ground, and one short hour consigned to
demolition and ruin the work of four hundred years, during which Alba
had stood. The temples of the gods, however, for such had been the
orders given by the king, were spared.
30. In the mean time Rome increases by the demolition of Alba. The
number of citizens is doubled. The Cœlian mount is added to the city,
and in order that it might be inhabited more populously, Tullus selects
that situation for his palace and there took up his abode. The leading
persons among the Albans he enrols among the patricians, that that
branch of the state also might increase, the Julii, Servilii, Quinctii,
Geganii, Curiatii, Clœlii; and as a consecrated place of meeting for
the order augmented by him he built a senate-house, which was called
Hostilia even down to the age of our fathers. And that every rank might
acquire some additional strength from the new people, he formed ten
troops of horsemen from among the Albans: he likewise recruited the old,
and raised new legions from the same source. Confiding in this increase
of strength, Tullus declares war against the Sabines, a nation at that
time the most powerful, next to the Etrurians, in men and in arms.
Injuries had been done on both sides, and restitution demanded in vain.
Tullus complained that some Roman merchants had been seized in an open
market near the temple of Feronia; the Sabines, that some of their
people had taken refuge in the asylum, and were detained at Rome. These
were assigned as the causes of the war. The Sabines, holding in
recollection both that a portion of their strength had been fixed at
Rome by Tatius, and that the Roman power had also been lately increased
by the accession of the Alban people, began, on their part, to look
around for foreign aid. Etruria was in their neighbourhood; of the
Etrurians the Veientes were the nearest. From thence they drew some
volunteers, their minds being stirred up to a revolt, chiefly in
consequence of the rankling animosities from (former) wars. And pay also
had its weight with some stragglers belonging to the indigent
population. They were assisted by no aid from the government, and the
faith of the truce stipulated with Romulus was strictly observed by the
Veientes (for with respect to the others it is less surprising). While
they were preparing for war with the utmost vigour, and the matter
seemed to turn on this, which should first commence hostilities, Tullus
first passes into the Sabine territory. A desperate battle ensued at the
wood called Malitiosa,[47] in which the Roman army was far superior,
both by the strength of their foot, and also by the recent augmentation
of their cavalry. The Sabine ranks were thrown into disorder by a sudden
charge of the cavalry, nor could either the fight be afterwards
restored, or a retreat accomplished without great slaughter.
[Footnote 47: _Malitiosam_. ??? ???? ?a???µ???? ?a???????. Dio. iii.]
31. After the defeat of the Sabines, when the government of Tullus and
the whole Roman state was in high renown, and in a very flourishing
condition, word was brought to the king and senators, that it rained
stones on the Alban Mount. As this could scarcely be credited, on
persons being sent to inquire into the prodigy, a thick shower of stones
fell from heaven in their sight, just as when hail collected into balls
is pelted down to the earth by the winds. Besides, they imagined that
they heard a loud voice from the grove on the summit of the hill,
requiring the Albans to perform their religious service according to the
rites of their native country, which they had consigned to oblivion, as
if their gods had been abandoned together with their country; and they
had either adopted the religion of Rome, or, as may happen, enraged at
their evil destiny, had renounced altogether the worship of the gods. A
festival of nine days was instituted publicly by the Romans also on
account of the same prodigy, either in obedience to the heavenly voice
sent from the Alban mount, (for that too is stated,) or by the advice of
the aruspices. Certain it is, it continued a solemn observance, that
whenever the same prodigy was announced, a festival for nine days was
observed. Not long after, they were afflicted with a pestilence; and
though from this there arose an aversion to military service, yet no
respite from arms was granted by this warlike king, who considered that
the bodies of the young men were even more healthy abroad than at home,
until he himself also was seized with a lingering disease. Then,
together with his body, those fierce spirits became so broken, that he,
who formerly considered nothing less worthy of a king than to devote his
mind to religion, suddenly became a slave to every form of superstition,
important and trifling, and filled the people's minds also with
religious scruples. The generality of persons, now wishing to recur to
that state of things which had existed under king Numa, thought that the
only relief left for their sickly bodies was, if peace and pardon could
be obtained from the gods. They say that the king himself, turning over
the commentaries of Numa, after he had found therein that certain
sacrifices of a secret and solemn nature had been performed to Jupiter
Elicius, shut himself up and set about the performance of this
solemnity; but that that rite was not duly undertaken or conducted, and
that not only no appearance of heavenly notification was presented to
him, but that he was struck with lightning and burnt to ashes, together
with his house, through the anger of Jupiter, exasperated at the
impropriety of the ceremony. Tullus reigned two-and-thirty years with
great military renown.
32. On the death of Tullus the government devolved once more upon the
senate, and they nominated an interrex; and on his holding the comitia,
the people elected Ancus Marcius king. The fathers confirmed the
election. Ancus Marcius was the grandson of king Numa Pompilius by his